hadriel_logs | Intro Log: None Hadriel With Left Shark

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Intro Log: None Hadriel With Left Shark

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for February
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: February 10th-16th
Warnings: Shark week

Once more, new arrivals will wake up on the ground level of the ruined colosseum. There isn't anything particularly comforting about it, either- everything is a bit cold and impersonal and there is, of course, the fact that nobody remembers just how they managed to wind up here in the first place. That can all be explained in time, though- until then, you've got quite a bit on your plate already.

And why is that? Well, that may be because you're also surrounded by sharks.

Yes, on land.

It doesn't mean that they're totally incapacitated though- you still have your two headed sharks, your giant sharks, and your sharktopus that are more than capable of flopping in your general direction before taking you into a death roll. And don't forget the (far more dangerous) sand sharks, capable of swimming through the ground as if it were water itself. You might want to start to find ~~a life raft~~ high ground soon.

But hey, if you manage to get away from the sharks, feel free to help yourself to one of the odd food shaped blankets. These cozy comforters are perfect for your new bed, but they tend to carry a faint scent of the food they represent, so be sure not to sleep on an empty stomach!

Listen to the Jaws theme, grab a harpoon, and get cozy! On your way to safety, make sure to explore the rest of the city! Find a house, a new monster, a project to help with, or simply scavenge for supplies. Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Hadriel!

► This log covers February 10th-16th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► All characters arrive with phones that have network communication and the newbie guide installed.
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Huh.

No wonder he don't seem real unsettled about bein' down here. Might be a small cage, but it's more spacious than the one it sounds like he was stuck in for a year. Linear time - it sure is something.

A system that lets somethin' like that transpire without complaint, well, that's even better. Yeah, sounds pretty fantastic for just about everybody. You say somethin' somebody don't like, and you disappear. Sounds, uh - familiar, in its own way...?

...

He won't pursue that thought.

"You seem pretty sane to me, pal." He tips one eyesocket shut in a wink. "I doubt anybody here'll lock you up for any sorta reason like that."

And if they do, it ain't like they'd be real successful at it. Incarceration ain't exactly one of the Hadriel guard's specialties.

Its only dawned upon Rosen himself that perhaps this is why, beyond a daze fueled by adrenaline and rapid heart rate, he doesn't feel distraught. The sense of upset and helplessness he should feel have been delayed in coming and now he wonders if they will come at all.

"Thank you."

Its a strange thing to have your sanity confirmed by a talking skeleton, but he will take it for the moment.

"Then let me ask you, Sans, when the monsters and the humans became divided, was there a singular reason? Was there a specific catalyst for the war?"

What had been the last straw.

So, uh, yeah, maybe Sans ain't the best person to confirm a subjective experience; talking skeletons aren't what he thinks humans would generally consider a very sane thing to be chattin' with. But if it helps, then it helps.

That's what matters.

He reaches up to scratch at the crown of his skull with the rasp of ossein against itself, a wholly reflexive and by and large generally useless gesture, since he lacks the skin to be technically itching up there in the first place. But it helps him think. Grounds him some.

"They say it was the SOULs," he says, sortin' through all the different explanations. 'Cause there were plenty of 'em. Hard to say what the real cause was, though he supposes the King would know. "We had the potential to take theirs, and with that power - we could wipe 'em off the map. Suppose that's how they justified it. Never happened, though. We're generally a pretty peaceful people."

"So then if I understand correctly souls are quasi-tangible things where you come from? Or are in some way transferable?"

So far as he knows there has still been no success in quantifying the soul or confirming its existence by any medical means. There have been experiments in weighing the body before and after death, but the results have generally been inconclusive or dodgy.

Thus the idea of 'taking a soul' is another step above the assumption of its existence. And he does not think Sans is speaking allegorically about the taking of souls. This is not the field of preacher men and their flocks.

"How would a monster take a soul? Is this also magic?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Everyone's got one. Human SOULs are just, uh...unique, kinda. They can persist after death; most monster SOULs can't." Boss monster SOULs are the only exception there but, uh, he ain't really eager to go down that road right now. Too complicated.

"Generally, you gotta kill the person it belongs to. Hence why it ain't necessarily a big thing, where we come from." He inclines his skull, faintly. The general moral consensus is that killing shouldn't be necessary, and if it is - it's a hell of a burden.

Asgore didn't wanna kill those six kids any more than they wanted to die.

"Is there a particular-," Lee struggles to find the word he wants, "- value to a human soul?" The word 'value' doesn't sit right with him though he hadn't been able to think of something better. Even so he doesn't like how cold that sounds, almost like an auctioneer's appraisal of an artifact. "What I mean is, what would any monster want with a human soul?"

Sans had said it had never happened before. If that is the case, then what would be the basis of the human's fear? Or is it just another case of human's preemptively acting in self-defense? Or perhaps it is another issue of human's arbitrarily choosing reasons to create divisions between themselves and the 'alternative'?

"Humans're stronger, generally. Their SOULs follow that same kinda pattern. So a monster with that kinda power would be, uh...pretty nigh unstoppable, it turns out."

Humans, they got those special qualities to 'em. They got determination, and they got the will to persist where most monsters do not. They're made of more than just magic and the hopes and dreams of those who live Underground.

"Humans have this thing we call determination." He opens a bony hand in artless supination, one eyesocket lidding at half-mast with the other dropping shut entirely. "With the right intent, one human could tear up the entire population of monsters."

One did, in actual fact. Or was it two?

With the right intent

"Its strange but I am used to thinking of humans as among the more fragile of organic life. We have no outer protective shell, we are immediately susceptible to the slightest changes in climate, we are prone to disease..." Lee numbers each off on his fingers. "And we have no magic. But at the same time it is undeniable that we have the greatest capacity for destruction of any creatures on earth."

His shoulders slouch forward, "and it sounds like that your humans on the surface share in that same capacity. What does that say about us?"

"Yeah, but you got somethin' else. You're able to keep going. Despite, uh...all odds, really." That's the incredible thing, really. Nothin' like the pure determination that's hardwired into damn near every one of 'em. The only monster who'd had that to match was Undyne, and even that power wasn't near enough, when there's an anomaly warping time back every time the game don't go how it wants it to.

They. How they don't want it too. Slippin' up, even now.

"You could be starving, bleeding, arms broken, and you'll keep going. A monster gets a hit from one person who really decides they hate them...?"

He lets the sentence trail off. He don't need to finish, he's sure.

Intent just has everything to do with it.

It is then that something dawns upon Rosen, something about the way Sans talks about human behavior. After a pause he settles his gaze squarely ahead, "Sans. You said that the monsters were sealed underground with humans on top. Were you...um...were you there when this happened? Did you once live on the surface?"

"Please tell me if I am prying, I don't want to overstep any boundaries," his brows knit worriedly, "but its just that the way you describe humans, it seems as if you must have at least known some of them very well."

"I didn't, nah. Some monsters, the older ones - they did. Those that remember the war."

He, uh, really should be more careful 'bout what he lets slip, maybe. How's he say this, exactly? Ain't exactly like you can up and just trot out so by the by, I've been caught in a temporal recursion for god knows how long and attempted to kill the anomaly-slash-human-kid that was causing it and expect things to go over well with anybody.

Nah. He don't really spring for that sorta thing. He jerks a thumb over his shoulder, a lazy, equivocal gesture.

"There's plenty of humans 'round here, though." That's not quite the truth, but the truth's complicated. Implies he only really got to know humans once he ended up here, and that ain't really the case.

That is a fair point. Rosen lets the matter go without argument.

"Though I wonder, if there are humans where you are from and human where I am from, and more here from other realities, are all of us humans the same? Or are there variations?"

The world Rosen knows has no monsters, no 'underground', so what says that the humans from the monster-less, underground-less world weren't different from the humans of Sans' 'surface' ? His mind balks a bit at the thought. The endless possibilities of variations, just like the Alphas. The existence of variants in the human genome is undeniable. He's studied them for over half his life.

"Good question." He ain't exactly what he'd call an expert on the subject. Humans from home, he knows, can gain LOVE; Frisk has, and if Chara hadn't hit the roof by now, he's pretty sure they'd've long since done so by the time their evil twins vacated the premises.

"Wouldn't really be the right person to ask. But you could probably poke around, and see. There's plenty of, uh...superhumans on top of everything else."

People like Kate, who more or less named herself as such from the get-go. People like Wanda, who disappeared at some point or another, lost in the linear slide of days creeping by. People who ain't anything other than human, but have skills humans wouldn't necessarily have, typically.

"Now there's an idea." Poking around, that is. There's been an itch at the back of his mind since the fog of the initial panic faded. Now free of the sharks and the tentacles, what is Lee supposed to do with himself in this place? He's been guaranteed that there is no exit so naturally he must decide how he'll get himself off his feet. He's at least free of his cell. He should put that to use.

So why not do what he has always done?

"Maybe that is what I will do here. Research." The corners of Lee's mouth quirk upward, slightly reassured by the idea. Research, the familiar task of thorough observation, rigorous questioning, and copious note taking would be a comfort. "Research what we all are, where we all are from, and everything in between."

"That ain't a bad idea." It'd be real handy to have a catalogue of this sorta thing, assumin' people are willing to contribute. People're bound to have their, uh, secrets and limitations, but he won't begrudge 'em that. He's the same.

More or less.

"We gotta clinic 'round here somewhere, for medical work and the like. Might be a good place to start." He spins a phalanx in a sloppy, noncommittal gesture, 'cause there's probably a gap in space he could use to squeeze on through in that general direction. Probably, not that he's real interested in sortin' that out just now.

He's done enough work for one day.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Intro Log: None Hadriel With Left Shark

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